Thursday, July 24, 2014

A Few Quickie Recommendations at the OBF

I braved the liquid skies and mud bogs for opening day at the Oregon Brewers Festival yesterday, and aside from the very unusual weather, things went just as you would expect. Lots of people, nice conversation, and good beer. One of the topics of conversation begins with the question, "what have you had today that was good?" In the spirit of that, here are my (necessarily incomplete) answers.

Boneyard Bone-a-fide. You have certain expectations about Boneyard: a sweet malt base that lifts up an intense infusion of hops. Boneyard meets your expectations. At 5.5%, it's a perfect festbier.

Boundary Bay Double Dry Hop Mosaic. Very much in the Boneyard mode--vivid but not oppressive washes of hops. They build through mid-palate, and you expect a shattering finish, but no, it fades out into a sunny, fruity finish.

Heathen Megadank. This is listed, wrongly, at 120 IBUs. It's actually not hugely bitter, but it is saturated in hops--dank, slightly fruity hops.

Klamath Basin Breakfast Blend. A coffee IPA that is just a notch below the best I've ever had, but which nevertheless demonstrates the potential of hops and coffee (which just shouldn't work).

Sierra Nevada/Ninkasi Double Latte Coffee Milk Stout. The name pretty much says it all, and it really hit the spot as the rain was hammering down.

We don't all have the same palates, so I'll throw out a few more that were good--and perhaps in your mouth, great. Bayern Amber (a graduate course in rich malting), Crux Off-Leash Session Ale (a Crystal hop special that will probably show better under hot skies), Ecliptic Crimson Saison (interesting balance, but my palate was gone), Payette Blood Orange IPA (more IPA than blood orange, but good), Logsdon Straffe Drieling (just had a sip, but it seemed really impressive), Sixpoint 3Beans (a bit hot, but rich and creamy).

I didn't encounter any disasters. There were beers that didn't hit me in the happy spot, from Upright's overly spiced (those damn pink peppercorns again) saison to Caldera's coconut porter (too coconutty--but others were going crazy for it). Even Laht Neppur's latest non-beer confection, a peach pie beer that tasted 100% of the former and 0% of the latter, was well done for what it was.